Most Recent Documents for Roger Williams

3
POPULATION COMPOSITION
CHAPTER
P
opulation composition, or the
demographic structure refers to those
characteristics of population which are
measurable and which help us distinguish one
group of people from the other. Age, sex,
literacy, place of reside

On the Economics of Capital Punishment
Gary S. Becker
P
osner provides a good discussion of the various issue related
to capital punishment. I will concentrate my comments on deterrence, which is really the crucial
issue in the acrimonious debate over cap

American Inequality:
From IT Bust to Big Government Boom
James K. Galbraith and J. Travis Hale
T
he American economy is not a
monolith, but a kaleidoscope.
Things change, and so does the
geographic distribution of income.
Some counties prosper, others suf

Honeybees
Market for pollination services grows
nly a beekeeper would move to South Carolina for
the pollen. But Chuck and Karen Kutik of
Manning, S.C., count on it to help feed their
livestock 2,500 to 3,000 hives of honeybees. Bees mix
pollen and nectar

Global Climate Change:
A Challenge to Policy
Kenneth J. Arrow
L
ast fall, the United Kingdom issued
a major government report on global climate change directed by Sir
Nicholas Stern, a top-flight economist. The Stern Report amounts to
a call to action: it

Why We Can Do Better than
New Source Review
Shi-Ling Hsu
T
he Clean Air Acts New Source Review program requires the installation of state-of-the-art pollution
control equipment whenever a new
air-polluting plant is built. The program also applies when a m

Hedge Fund Wizards
Dean P. Foster and H. Peyton Young
E
very other week, it seems, some
large hedge fund blows up due to
bad bets. Many investors, including
supposedly sophisticated ones, are
losing their shirts. They shouldnt
be surprised, because the de

Should Governments Provide
Catastrophe Insurance?
dwight M. jaffee and Thomas Russell
T
he tragic consequences of Hurricane Katrina have given renewed
importance to the analysis of the
appropriate role of government in
the provision of catastrophe insuran

Want to Monitor Medicares
New Drug Benefit Program?
Start by Sending a Check for $120,000
R
epublicans have long rallied against
the welfare state, and Democrats
against a rapacious private sector.
So it is hardly surprising they dont
see eye-to-eye on th

A New Way to Address Climate Change:
A Global Refunding System
HANS GERSBACH
A
ddressing climate change is vital.
The Group of Eight leading
nations formally endorsed a goal
of halving global green-house
gas emissions by 2050, as
reported recently in the

Microsoft: Predator or Prey?
Robert Hahn and Peter Passell
I
n February, the European Competition
Commission fined Microsoft $1.35 billion. That was the largest fine the Commission has ever levied, but Microsoft
might be excused for thinking of this
event

Taxes on Investment Income Remain
Too High and Lead to Multiple Distortions
Martin Feldstein
T
hanks to recent tax reforms, the marginal tax rates on investment income
in the United States are significantly
lower today than in the past, which
correspondin

Its No Time to Regulate
Wireless Telephony
John W. Mayo
T
he FCC mandates that cellular customers can take their telephone
numbers with them when they
switch carriers. Shouldnt customers also be able to take their phones
with them, moving, for example, an

The Economics of Net Neutrality
Robert Hahn and Scott Wallsten
P
oliticians, businesses, techies, consumer groups, and wide swaths of
academia used to agree on one government policy: Hands off the Internet! Ironically, though, many of
these groups, includ

The Rush to Re-Regulate
By Robert Hahn and Peter Passell
W
ith Wall Street still reeling
from
the
mortgage
meltdown, the Federal
Reserve now seemingly
committed to rescuing big
investment banks too complex to fail, and
the U.S. Treasury proposing a top-to

Spence Christens a New
Washington Consensus
By Dani Rodrik
T
wo and a half years ago, senior staff
members of the World Bank asked
Nobel laureate Michael Spence to
lead a high-powered commission
on economic growth. The question
at hand could not have been

How to Deal with Terrorism
Bruno S. Frey
A
fter the attacks of 9/11, the
American president declared a
Crusade against terrorists. This
Crusade was, after some thinking, changed into a War Against
Terrorism. This war on terrorism is totally
based on deter

Was Welfare Reform Successful?
Rebecca M. Blank
W
elfare reform was passed
by Congress and signed by
President Clinton in August 1996. Back then there
were many skeptics: several
senior members of President Clintons administration resigned in protest. Now

If Voters Wont Go for Taxing Oil to
Conserve Energy, How Do We Do It?
aaron S. edlin
W
hat do President George
Bush, former Senator Gary
Hart, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman,
and Cornell economist
Robert Frank all have in common? Every single
on

Toying with Death and Taxes:
Some Lessons from Down Under
Joshua Gans and Andrew Leigh
T
he United States House of Representatives has passed legislation to
repeal the estate tax. With a Senate
vote potentially still on the horizon,
a broad debate on the

Valuing Ecosystem Services
Edward B. Barbier and Geoffrey M. Heal
H
urricane Katrina emphasized
the value of wetlands in limiting
storm damage, and many have
suggested that expanded wetlands should be part of any plan
for rebuilding New Orleans. Expanded